CORVALLIS -- Admit it. In the first quarter Saturday night, you looked to the sideline to see if Sean Mannion was warming up.

Cody Vaz certainly had an adventurous start to his third start of the season. But after taking an early pounding, he came back to lead the Beavers to a 36-26 win over the Sun Devils.

Vaz threw two incompletions, then fumbled the ball away under a heavy rush at his goal line, and Arizona State's Junior Onyeali picked it up to give the Sun Devils a 7-0 lead.

Then Vaz missed a wide, wide-open Caleb Smith on the next series, and the Beavers had to settle for a field goal instead of a tie.

Vaz completed just one pass in the first quarter -- a 50-yard touchdown to Markus Wheaton -- and took numerous body blows from an ASU defense that welcomed back physical defensive tackle Will Sutton.

Vaz's stat line in the first quarter hurt, too: 1 for 7, 50 yards, three sacks.

The rest of the way: 13 for 26, 217 yards and three touchdowns -- not bad against the blitzing, punishing ASU defense, and good enough for Vaz's third win in those three starts.

So good, in fact, that Vaz showed no ill effects from the six sacks and numerous other hits.

"I feel great," said Vaz, flashing the now-familiar easygoing smile. "They've got a great defense and a great group of athletes and really came after us.

"But when we needed it, guys on the offensive line stepped up, guys on the perimeter stepped up and made big plays for us."

Namely, Markus Wheaton and Brandin Cooks, who each had more than 100 receiving yards.

Plus guys in the backfield -- and not just Vaz. Terron Ward's 146 rushing yards certainly helped ease the pressure, but Ward's greatest contribution was pass protection. It was Ward's blocking that kept him on the field, kept Malcolm Agnew off it (Storm Woods did not play) and kept Vaz -- for the most part -- upright.

But it took a while.

Arizona State came into the game with 75 tackles for loss, and it appeared the Sun Devils might just pressure the Beavers right out of Reser Stadium.

"They brought a lot of pressure early, and we struggled with it," Wheaton said.

OSU coach Mike Riley knew that Arizona State would make big plays on defense and the Beavers would answer with some plays of their own.

"It was hard offensively, but we made big plays," Riley said. "(With ASU), it's going to be a little feast or famine -- both ways."

And it wasn't clear whether Vaz would be around to see whether feast would win out over famine.

"That part of it didn't look good early," Riley said of the punishment Vaz was taking. "I was just hoping we would do better, which we did.

"I thought (Vaz) played pretty darn well considering everything that was going on early."

So the Beavers, after switching quarterbacks and nearly losing the newly named starter, came out -- like they have in all but one game this season -- with a win.